Studio exec says Shazam movie will have sense of fun

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A few more interesting morsels of information have popped up about Dwayne Johnson's Shazam movie.

Following the news that Johnson has officially decided to play the villain, Black Adam, in the movie, EW got on the phone with Toby Emmerich, the head of Warner Bros. subsidiary New Line Cinema. New Line is the company that's actually going to produce the film -- which, right away, differentiates it from the Justice League movies being created under the larger Warner Bros. umbrella.

Emmerich agrees: "It feels to me like Shazam will have a tone unto itself." he told EW. “It’s a DC comic, but it’s not a Justice League character, and it’s not a Marvel comic. The tone and the feeling of the movie will be different from the other range of comic book movies.”

And just how will it be different? Well, Emmerich said that the movie "will have a sense of fun and a sense of humor. But the stakes have to be real.”

"Fun" and "humor" are two things that were in short supply in the Dark Knight trilogy and Man of Steel, both of which went for the "dark and gritty" approach, and it's recently been reported that Warner Bros, has instituted a "no jokes" policy for all its Justice League-related films -- which means that Shazam doesn't appear to be part of that continuity and might be a standalone film like Sandman.

As for Johnson playing Black Adam, Emmerich said, "Black Adam is a complex character. The villain in superhero movies is often, I think, what makes the movie. And I thought Dwayne’s take on the character, and the way that he saw Black Adam, was really compelling and fun.”

So Shazam has a villain and a screenwriter, but no release date, no director, and most importantly, no one playing the title character yet. But it will have a "sense of fun." Will that help set it apart from the other DC movies? Will a little levity be a relief amidst all the darkness apparently coming our way in Batman v. Superman and the other DC films? Discuss below.